IRS to Regulate Tax Preparation Industry

Sounds like a good idea to me. Of course it could make it harder to find a professional preparer come 2011, as I suspect a lot of the small time operations will disappear rather tham comport to the existence of regulation. But it will give people peace of mind to know that the preparer they went to knew what they were doing. Also guard against shady preparers that advertise that they can find larger refunds for people, when they are in fact skirting the rules and leading people to audits.

I can’t agree with the H&R Block (a company that would benefit from this reform as more people take their business to the larger companies that are left) when she wanted to also regulate unpaid preparers. They are unpaid and therefor not profitting from their work. Most cases they are a family member more willing to sit down with the forms. It would be impossible to regulate them and be unproductive to try.